Tech support

don't hate me for putting this here, i haven't got the time to look around for a
suitable place (ie im not sure if there is a thread already dedicated to tech
support) though i am certain no one has ever had this problem nor posted about
it on the forums.

so, i've been looking to buy more ram, and my motherboard only supports ddr2 533.
yet ddr2 667 and ddr2 800 is alot cheaper.

so i was curious as to whether if i slotted some ddr2 667 or 800 into the board
and just set it to run at a frequency of 533 mhz whether it would be functional.

(if this is in the wrong place please don't hate just move it or whatever, also
no flaming my ignorance/stupidity please!)

i have read of people buying ram and then "underclocking" it so it still works.
but don't quote me on it if doesn't work.

if you don't want to be flamed or ridiculed, don't give us reason to. simple
as that.

yes.

what about changing the motherboard too if you're about to change ram, after all
they ain't too expensive, imho the motherboard is the cheapest part of them all
usually, and well worth the upgrade too.
but well, it's just my 2 cents 🙂

i can't say i agree with that, depending on the rest of his hardware and habits,
it may be pointless to swap the motherboard.

i'd only recommend it if he runs apps that require a lot of memory bandwidth,
overclocks his system, or is planning to upgrade the rest of his hardware soon.
other than that i don't see a good reason to bother.

i was saying that because i find it a waste to buy good hardware only to
underclock it... but as i said, just my 2 cents, i'm not a computer tech or
anything 🙂

but . . . with everyone bailing on vista, and the companys stuck with massive
stockpiles of ddr2 ram, why not buy the more powerful cheaper ram that will
run at the slower speed just by plugging it in

if it saves you money as it would since locally ddr2 ram is a quarter the
price of ddr ram, grab it while you can, because eventually the axcees stock
will run out and prices will return to normal or higher

as your talking about memory i have a question for you if you can help.

i have just bought a intel core 2 duo e6600 with a asus p5b-vm motherboard.
the memory scan told me to buy for it was..

(1gb (2x512mb) corsairtwinx xms2, ddr2 pc2-6400(800), 240 pins, non-ecc
unbuffered, cas 4-4-4-12, epp).

with vista i only have just over 300meg left to play with so i would like to
know if i can mix the memory (e.g.) 2x512 (cas 4-4-4-12,epp) with 2x1gig (cas
5-5-5-12,epp) both at 800 speed. this is the memory i was thinking of buying..

(2gb (2x1gb) corsairtwinx xms2, ddr2 pc2-6400 (800), 240 pins, non-ecc
unbuffered, cas 5-5-5-12)

just another question what is epp i have no idear what to look for in memory i
also don't know if 4-4-4-12 is faster than 5-5-5-12 or is it the other way
round 5-5-5-12 faster than 4-4-4-12.

please if you know would you be as good as to drop a note in here for me.
much appreciated and thanks for your time.

bye for now (si)(uk) :-)

epp = enhanced performance profiles.

it's basically an onboard eprom that stores a series of timing profiles -
generally a basic "guaranteed to work" set, and one or more "adventurous
higher performance" sets that may or may not work depending on your
motherboard and/or speed settings.

the numbers (4-4-4-12, 5-5-5-12 etc) refer to timing cycles of various
elements in the ram. lower is better (i.e. takes fewer cycles per element to
do something) the lower the numbers, the better the chances of it running at
higher bus speeds (i.e. aggressively timed nominally 800mhz stuff has a better
chance of being overclocked to 1066mhz or whatever)

in general mixing and matching of memory works if you run them all at the same
timings - in practice this means clocking everything down to the level of the
lowest common denominator.

in your case this would mean clocking your fast 2x512gb modules down to the
settings of the (presumably cheaper) 5-5-5-12 2x1gb modules.

since you are running the 2x512gb at stock 800mhz speed anyway this should
have vanishingly little performance impact.

also make sure you place the equally sized modules on the same channel (usually
same colored slots. refer to your motherboard manual).

about vista chewing up all your ram; that's the doing of a feature called
superfetch and is perfectly normal.
it monitors your activites and caches the applications you use most frequently
for quicker operation.
naturally, the more ram you have the more it will use, but once the amount of
free ram is exceeded by another application (such as a game), vista will release
some of the cached content in order to make more ram available for use.

well guys what can i say thanks for the positive feedback.
thanks alot.

to those that were wondering about why i don't just buy another mb?

well its as simple as this really.
at the moment im excruciatingly strapped for cash right.
a gig of 800 or 667 ram costs 50 - 60 bucks nz.
533 costs like 90 a gig.

i plan to *later* upgrade my motherboard but i intend to upgrade to an amd
motherboard. atm im running an intel motherboard. and at the time that i built
this pc i was again strapped for cash. so have a celeron d 2.53ghz cpu.

so to upgrade a motherboard + ram + cpu (i intend to get something in the 5200+
x2 - 6000+ x2 range - costing like 250 - 300 bucks) is all up like 400 - 450
bucks. money that i don't have. and there is nothing wrong with the motherboard
i have atm, its only like 6 months old.

so i intend to buy the cheaper ram not only because its cheap but for future
proofing, so that when i upgrade ill have the best that my system can run. while
still getting the best performance i can achieve now.

so thanks for the responses, and not to sound like an idiot, but can i just get
some confirmation on this board actually running this ram? with some reasoning
or experience?

the ram will simply be downclocked, so there shouldn't be any issues unless your
board is directly incompatible with this specific type of ram.

regarding your future upgrade; i would recommend going with intel's core 2 duo
(don't confuse them with the p4's, it's a completely different chip) instead of
amd's x2 range.
they are faster (even at lower clocks than their x2 counterparts), run cooler,
draw less power and overclocks a lot better, should you wish to do so. (most
chips do 3ghz without much issue)
for your specific pricerange i would recommend the e6600. (or if you wait until
after the pricedrops at the end of july, a q6600 (quad core) should be about the
same price as the current e6600's)

well thanks for that, most of that i was already aware of, but amd are cheaper,
amd motherboards are alot better. and my motherboard does support ddr2. so it
has the right interface, i was just like unsure because it is speced to only run
ddr2 533. and was curious is all.

not to spark an amd vs intel battle here but im always one for supporting the
under dog.

lol and of course im aware core 2 duo ain't anything like p4.

im not an actual idiot. nor am i going to self promote myself too much. but i do
have a fair understanding and knowledge of both hardware, and software.

i never thought you were an idiot, but i figured too much information is better
than too little.
i've dealt with a lot of people who do confuse the p4's with the c2d's, so i
figured it was best to clarify since i have no way to gauge your knowledge. 😛

in the end it's still your decision and i won't judge you for choosing amd over
intel, all i know is that i would want all information at hand when making a
decision, so i figured you should too.

about the ram: what i meant was the the particular brand/model of ram could be
incompatible (although it is fairly rare these days). you may want to search
around for specific information regarding your board and ram of choice before
ordering.